Good afternoon To come in here on the Bate/Bates question ,we were reccommended to try the Kingsclere Bates as our John Bates who married Betty Matthews has on the parish register been entered as John Bates but the s is then crossed off. Both John Bate/s & Betty Matthews signed as did both witnesses.Would be helpful if we could maybe match this John Bates signature.Betty Matthews was daughter of George matthews of Hamstead Marshall ,witnesses were Charles Matthews and Benjamin Naish ,I am waiting for some more printouts from Berkshire of what could be further connections. George Matthews was a wheelwright lived in a substanial house rented off the Craven estate . He left quite a bit to each of his children on death. His first wife Mary Clark , 2nd wife Rose Green. Sophia Bates was witness at second marriage. To date we do not know anything about Rose Green. We think this John Bate/s died in Kintbury in 1812 but with a lack of age or any other details in the register we can't prove it. Would really love to get to the bottom of this. Will wait to hear what everyone thinks. regards Beverley

On Saturday 11 August 2007 15:16, Beverley Smith wrote: > George Matthews was a > wheelwright lived in a substanial house rented off the Craven estate . He > left quite a bit to each of his children on death. His first wife Mary > Clark , 2nd wife Rose Green. Sophia Bates was witness at second marriage. > To date we do not know anything about Rose Green. Now we have the names GREEN and CLARK common to both the Matthews and Bates families. As a child in Basingstoke the family next door to us were CLARK and they always said they were an old family from the North Hampshire area. So far I have spotted a considerable number of GREEN family members in Baughurst but have not investigated further. Regards, Nigel Gerdes